Urban effects on precipitation and associated convective processes

Scholars from antiquity until today have observed and speculated on how human activity shapes the Earth system (Ruddiman 2003; Von Storch and Stehr 2006; Yow 2007). Noted scholar Paul Crutzen has stated,

humans have become a geologic agent comparable to erosion and eruptions . . . it seems appropriate to emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology by proposing to use the term “anthropocene” for the current geological epoch.